Museum Blog

Articles for author John Demboski: 34

Big and Open Data!

Posted 04/26/2013 by John Demboski | Comments

Data associated with museum specimens is found on tags, in handwritten catalogs and field notes, and increasingly, in relational databases. These databases let us to manage our collections, track use, map our specimens, add associated images and publications, and publish our holdings to larger data…
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Categories:
- Zoology
Tags:
- Collections
- Birds
- Mammals
- Database
- Big Data
- Museums
Kayce Bell receives NSF DDIG funding!

Posted 03/25/2013 by John Demboski | Comments
Kayce Bell was informed recently by National Science Foundation that she will be getting a prestigious Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, the only proposal to receive a perfect score. Her project is "Elucidating Evolutionary Histories of Chipmunks and their Parasites". Kayce is a former DMNS …
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Categories:
- Zoology
Tags:
- Chipmunks
- NSF
- DDIG
- parasites
Off to Churchill and Polar Bears

Posted 10/19/2012 by John Demboski | Comments

Leaving for Churchill, Manitoba on Hudson Bay October 20 for 4 days of polar bears. Hopefully we'll see some other wildlife like arctic hares and foxes. I'll post pics when I get back.
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Categories:
- Zoology
Tags:
- Polar bears
Shrews in the News

Posted 07/02/2012 by John Demboski | Comments

The USGS issued a press release around our new shrew paper published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Here's the link to the release: "Shrews in the News - Rapid Evolution of Shrews in Response to Climate Change" and here: "Shrews Rapidly Evolving in Re…
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Categories:
- Zoology
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Wyoming fieldwork, 49 million years to the present

Posted 06/20/2012 by John Demboski | Comments

Was out this past week and a half with students in the Bridger (Green River) Basin of southwestern Wyoming. Highschool Teen Science Scholars, undergraduate students, other scientists, DMNS volunteers, and a few dogs. The Green River Basin is a treasure trove of Eocene critters that lived…
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Categories:
- Zoology
Tags:
- Teen Science Scholars
- Chipmunks
The Egg Craters! Take 2

Posted 06/04/2012 by John Demboski | Comments

The redhead duck egg clutch we saw in the last installment of "The Egg Craters" is shown above. Zoology department volunteer Alika Brooks designed and fabricated this hand-made "egg crate" to properly house the 36 eggs in this set. The box is made from acid-free cardboard and the eggs …
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Categories:
- Zoology
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The Egg Craters!

Posted 05/17/2012 by John Demboski | Comments

For nearly a century or more, most of the egg sets in the Zoology Department have been stored in open topped, single-walled, cardboard boxes. They were like fragile little sardines, clacking against one another; not the safest way to store eggs. The only difference is that unlike sardines, egg…
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Categories:
- Zoology
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Polar Bear Trip 2012!

Posted 03/12/2012 by John Demboski | Comments

POLAR BEAR WATCH In mid-October, some hundreds of polar bears begin arriving in Churchill, Manitoba, the polar bear capital of the world. The bears are waiting for the ice to come to Hudson Bay so they can hunt for their primary food source, seals. Normally these bears are solitary, but th…
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Categories:
- Zoology
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The Elusive Jackalope?

Posted 02/08/2012 by John Demboski | Comments

The Museum's image archivist, Rene' Payne, came across this photographic plate dated from 1915-1930 in our archives. Is this real proof for the existence of the jackalope or is there a biological explanation for this oddball bunny with antlers? Although the actual specimen i…
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Over 56,000 Vertebrate Records Online!

Posted 02/06/2012 by John Demboski | Comments
Over 56,000 DMNS vertebrate records now online and searchable through the multi-institutional, web-accessible database Arctos. Click on the bison or kiwi to search the collections! We are constantly updating the records to include more accurate geographic information,…
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Categories:
- Zoology
Tags:
- Collections